9.
True Love

"Without true love- we can't trust anything."

Within each human being are natural stages of growth.
We... being creatures of intellect...
Have stages of awareness...
Each... like a new room to explore...
Each... like a new world to understand.

As infants... our world is vast
And we have no point of reference...
Nothing to help us understand what we are...
Or what anything is.
Our world consists of feel...
Of tones of voice...
Of hunger, pain, sadness, contentment.

We are helpless... and feel that helplessness.
We likely feel defensive and must learn to trust.
Love... is what saves us.
Without love... we can't trust anything.

And so... even from our infancy
We learn either to trust our world
Or to be defensive
Depending on how well our needs are understood.

If we are not understood,
Then, love is not true...
And we are alone.
Even as infants... truth is truth...
What it is... as it is.
Although we may learn the art of escape
To ease our confusion and fear...
What is... is what it is. It is truth.

As we advance and learn
We become more aware of ourselves.
Our accomplishments are joyful,
But our environment is our nurturance.

If it knows and understands us,
We can unfold wonderfully... and joyfully.
But, if it has no respect...
If it seems to reject us...
Or scorns and degrades us...
How can we trust it?

We are reliant on love, again.
Love... saves our souls...
As we unfold and reach...
As we learn about ourselves and our world.
If truth isn't clear...
Then love isn't true...
Then love doesn't understand our needs...
And we are lost.

After we learn to walk and talk,
We become more aware that we are individuals.
We want to feel our feelings for ourselves
Like a young bird spreading its wings...
To feel all that we are in this life.

We demand respect and space.
It is essential to all we are
That we get a grasp on ourselves
As we begin to see the world through our own eyes.
We need very much to know who it is that we are.

Love saves us... gives us room...
Just enough to help us understand...
Understand all that knowledge that we are seeing...
All those truths that we are gathering.

If we are punished rather than guided...
If our joy in life is misunderstood...
Then love is not true...
And we close our beautiful wings around us.

Since we cannot reject what is truth to us...
We become a stranger in an alien world.
The stronger our sense of self is...
The more troublesome we may be
To any who doesn't understand us.

Our intellect gathers truths
From pieces of life around us...
We take and taste... we savor and digest...
We wonder about each to find out if it is true...
Or at least... true to us.

We discover life for ourselves.
We live life to know life.
All things were given to us
To choose for ourselves what is true to us.

What is justice... peace... happiness.
What is hope... fear... courage.
What are people... and creatures... and fish.
What is hurtful... or helpful... or selfish.
Experiencing anything... teaches us much.

We refine out the truth of these things...
In a way that we can understand it.
Even in a prison, or in slavery, or in shackles...
Even in a country full of repression...
Even in the dark of medieval ages...
Or the farthest island out in the sea...
We can discover the truth within us...
By understanding our own humanity.

Whether or not we have matured well...
We still can only mature so much...
We still can only understand so much...
Until we live it...
Until we know life for ourselves.

We must reach further...
Towards... all we are.
We must live all we are...
Know all we are.
We long to unfold all we are.

Love... saves us.

When we have matured,
Our Life force... compels us to mate.
All we are is in this...
This new beginning of life as an independent person.

It is the time of our own choosing...
Making choices from the wholeness of all we are.
In this mating is the fulfillment of all we are...
The pleasures of sexual sporting...
The sharing... the comforting... the joys...
The seeking of beauty in our lives...
All these are in that package called "love".

Life... is rather empty... without it.
There are few substitutes for it.
But... we need the whole package.
Because... in it... is the beautiful unfolding
Of all we are as men and women.
And... we yearn for it.

But, we must pause for a moment.
We must stand back far enough
To see the whole of all that
This "package of love" really is.

We must remember our own wholeness.
Are we... true to our hopes and dreams?
Do we... want trueness... for our self?
If so... we should live as if
That trueness was important to us.
We must strive for that trueness of all we are.

Our survival instinct is always at work for us.
We can no more rid ourselves of it
Than we can become the man in the moon.
If we think we've overcome it,
We only fool ourselves.
Every feeling creature has it.
It is part of being a feeling creature.

This instinct comes into play
When we find ourselves in
That most vulnerable position...
The extreme intimacy of romantic love.

How can we unfold all we are...
How can we know the truth of ourselves...
How can we accept our own truths...
How can we accept another's truths...
How can we surrender to joy...
How can we survive all this truth
Unless we are solid in our love?

All of our wholeness as a human being
May mathematically reduce down to...
Our sureness of this love.
We should treat this love with great respect...
It holds all our truths as a human being.

Without true love...
We will survive well enough...
We will cope with problems that occur...
We can have worlds of pleasures...
We can learn the skills of relationships...
We can play the game of life
As though all is right and good...
And never know the difference.

But... we will not be whole.
We will not unfold beautifully.
We will be only an actor in a play
Following lines that someone else has taught us...
Dancing to someone else's tune.

We may need lots of advice, as well.
But, what is the importance of truth...
Unless we are a man or a woman of truth?

True love is as essential to our human fulfillment...
Is as essential to our wholeness...
As is sunlight, and water, and life.

If we don't know the difference
Of what is true or not true,
Then we can't understand it.
We must know something about truth already.
We must know something about wholeness... already.
We must have already learned to trust ourselves.
We must have already desired our own wholeness.

In our search for that "special love"
We will meet many who we may be drawn to...
Who we might desire for a time.
The spark of love may be lit in us,
And... all we are dances for a moment in its light.

We feel the warmth of the fire of love,
And desire to have it.
But... what do we know about fire?
Well... we know that...
To build a good fire we must begin piece by piece...
Building its flame slowly
Until we can put a solid piece of wood on it.
The nature of fire dictates its course.

So, too, as we discover pieces of fire...
Hints of desire...
We test it by putting pieces of tender on it...
Little truths...
To see how that desire unfolds.

It is our hearts that burn or wane.
Our hearts must follow their true course...
Or there is no point in setting on it
A solid piece of wood.

How easy our desires can deceive us
If we forego the ritual of building our own fire.
Once we have discovered pleasure
In the flames of a hot fire...
We might well believe that we have
A good and solid fire going.

How do we know?
How can we know?
All those little truths?... poof.
All those deeper truths?... poof.
We have chosen to deceive ourselves
And may never again get a hold
On that wholeness that we desire most of all.

There is such pleasure in the ritual
Of building one's own fire.
The little moments of truths
As we prepare for each other.

If we see that the fire is good,
We will find joy in each moment...
Joys that we will always cherish...
All those little moments of truth in our life...
True moments that we saved for a true love.

To be able to feel that course under our feet
Keeps us solid in our own truth.
Love is not a fantasy.
Love is a real and true thing...
Essential to our completeness.

If we love each other even a little,
We won't cheat each other of those moments...
Of those steps... those choices.

If we love each other even a little...
We won't rob someone of their own chance for trueness.
If we love ourselves...
We won't put our true things
In an untrue fire
Where they can never be returned...
Where they will be lost in someone else's life...
Even discarded as meaningless.

Those moments never come back.
You want to keep them in your own whole life...
You want to have all your pieces where they belong.

If the fire is true,
Each must make a choice
To put their lives in their own hands...
To step into the fire
That is your life's true love...
To open your heart to love.

If the fire is true,
All you are will reveal it to you.
All you are... will begin to unfold.
All you are... will come to the Light.
All you are... will know your "Most Beautiful" you...
And... the "Most Beautiful" soul of your beloved.

Love opens the eyes and the heart.
Once you see that Most Beautiful soul,
That may be all you will ever again see...
While you both discover all that is life.

This fire... this trueness... this Love...
Threshes the heart.
In it... all that one is,
Comes to its warmth and its light...
Seeking its own peace with you...
And you must make peace with your own heart.

This fire... this trueness... this Love...
Is whole in all it is...
The comfort of forgiving arms...
The understanding that life was lived in darkness
Until the light came to be.

Love is the natural and most beautiful rebirth
Of all that you are...
All that you are as your most beautiful self.

In this natural state of love...
One can make peace with all those places
Where one had stumbled in the dark.

In this natural state of love...
Is strength to make peace with the past...
To heal where one had hurt...
To repay what one had taken...
To mend those holes that one had made in life.

In the fire... in this trueness... in this Love...
One threshes one's own life...
Gathering things from one's past
That one would make part of one's future...
A future... that is now made of two...
That is now in the Light...
That is now... full of only trueness and true things.

In the fire... in this trueness... in this Love...
Your world is now your own.
All that you bring into it
Becomes part of... trueness.
And the measure of all you are
Will be reflected in what you now...
Make true... make true for two.

You are reborn as a creature of Beauty and Truth.
In the trueness of love,
You become a creature of wholenesses... of peace.
And... that wholeness is fulfilled...
In the wholeness of two.

Love... is selfish.
It desires its trueness...
It desires its wholeness and its beauty.
And... the two of you are forever bonded
In the beautiful unfolding of all you are.

This Love you have is like Light in the world.
Its trueness shines on all around it.
With eyes that are opened...
With wholeness and truth...
With love, mercy, gentleness...
All that flows from your heart
Desires wholeness for all things...
Love... towards all things.

And... as you actually become Love...
There are such gifts...
That you might believe
That you hold a piece of God Himself
In your beautiful hands...
A gift of Truest Love...
A wholeness... a realness... even a Light...
To keep for yourselves.

And, you tend to your piece of Love
Like you learned to tend a fire.
You learn to keep it...
To put only true things in it...
To honor it with only good things...
To cherish that piece of Love.

And in learning to care for it...
You care for your beloved...
You care for all.
You... worship Love.

Seeing Wholeness... Truth... Love...
Is not just eyes for one's own fulfillment...
It now learns to understand the human heart.
It learns that Light is essential...
That we live in darkness
Until we can unfold all we are...
That our eyes are blinded
Until we see Truth with the eyes of Love.

We see that each has their own "Most Beautiful Self"...
But... it is only they... who can find it...
It is only they... who can rise
From the wholeness of all they are
To find it.
It is only they
Who can make peace with their own lives.

Discovering Love...
Is discovering more than romantic love.
It is discovering something like a new Land
Where Love is the Light that unfolds Life itself.

In this land, one sees the wholeness of Life...
That all its ways are beautiful and pleasant...
Its Truths are sweet and beautifully human.

There is no suffering here...
All is at peace with the human heart...
At peace with the sweet and innocent...
At peace with the wise and brave...
At peace with all we feel as men and women,
As human beings...
Life is at peace with... all.

Truth is not the enemy of humanity.
The Order of all Life
Has provided beautifully for our gentle hearts.
It is a most wondrous order
Where all things unfold naturally... sweetly...
Each in its own time...
Each in ways it can understand.

All are at peace... here.
Our children are at peace
In a home where the light shines...
Where love is true...
Where the face of our love
Is reflected in the faces of our children.

We learn from our love...
How to adore our children.
We learn to raise them with that same true love
We discovered in each other.

These... are the children of Light...
Lovers of life and beauty.

We are creatures of True Light.
That is our truth.
The farther one is from truth...
The farther one is from true beauty.

And the farther one is from beauty...
The farther one is from truth.
We only need to put all the pieces together.
We only need to desire our own wholeness.
We only need to be true in our hearts.
We only need to become a whole man... a whole woman...
Become a true man... a true woman.

Our human destiny really is... to become Truth...
And to become Love... and to become... the Light.
To know for one's self...
To know!... for one's self!

Eternal Life?
Like the life we see around us...
That is innumerable... so innumerable that...
We can hardly see the whole of it...
So, too... are the Wonders of Life.

Wonder upon Wonder...
Light after Light...
Truth after Truth...
Beauty after Beauty... without end.

If only we could step into the Light
And see it all for ourselves...
We might well see...
That all things in Life have eternity in them...
Each in their own way...
Bursting... unfolding... emerging... reaching...
Breathing... embracing beauty...
Begetting life... one to another.

Wholeness is not a conclusion.
Its fulfillment... its destiny...
Is never its ending.
Its seed reaches onward speaking to us...
Telling us there is always more.

Like the darkness that we knew so well...
That we often felt with all we were...
Where sometimes we had felt as if
We had come to know every little corner of that dark room...
Until... we found that window to the Light...
Until...we found the truth in the love of our hearts...
So... too... is our blindness of Eternity...
And mercy in its blindness...
Or we become false.

Jealousy in its truths...
A gift... only for the worthy...
For those who know beauty... and love... and truth...
And know what to do with it.

All that is... speaks to us of the Light.
All that is... encompasses the whole of life...
Touches on all of life...
Understands the whole of life...
Yet, each with a Wonder that is unmeasurable.

And we... each... also hold
Wonders that are unmeasurable...
Wonders within our human hearts.

How sweet it is to explore those wonders
With one's truest love...
To stand in this Land...
To stand in wonder at it...
To be part of the Harmony of all that is.

To be part of the Symphony of Life...
To be Truth within Truth...
Is all the fulfillment one could ever need
Without hoping for more...